For our spring break adventure we took to the streets in a rented car headed southeat out of Melbourne. The trip started out fairly nice, it doesn't turn into the Great Ocean Road until about an hour or so out of the city though. I made a couple CDs to last us the trip and it was a good thing because that road is long!
The Great Ocean Road is magnificent. On one side of the road is an endless view of beaches, cliffs, and rocks along side a beautiful ever expanding blue ocean. On the other side are rolling green grass hills at some parts and Tree covered forresty hills at other parts. We took our time leisurely stopping in a few beach towns and at a couple of points to hike to a waterfall or two. It was a beautiful and equally relaxing way to travel.
On our first day we even came across a Koala Bear up in the trees jumping around so we stopped for a bit to photograph it. We stayed for two nights in Apollo Bay YHA, which is by far the nicest hostel we've stayed in, touched, or even seen. It is only a few years old and has two kitchens, super nice rooms, bathrooms, everything was perfect. Derek and I played a game of Bocci Ball against the other two guys who came on the trip with us (Ian and Ash). Of course we put our powers together to destroy them in back to back games and become the champions of Bocci Ball and $10 apiece richer.
After staying one night we went out in the day for what we were told was a really great hike by some Montanian tennants of the hostel... but after the hour long trek along the beach with no changing scenery we decided these girls had probably only just started there Aussie travels. When we got to the end there was a sign that the Great Ocean Walk was just beginning... we had trekked through the sand for miles only to come to the beginning of the good part. Never listen to American girls (I know, duh right?). We checked out a big pasture splotched with sheep. It was pretty neat. Ian decided to try for a closer look and almost stepped right on this giant snake! Luckily he didn't. We snapped a few pictures and headed back to the hostel.
When we returned we jumped in the car and headed 20 minutes up the road where the ocean and forrest turns into rain forrest. It was awesome! If you've never seen trees covered in fur that are tall enough to where you can't see them anymore you are missing out. We did a little hike, then headed off to Triplet Falls. A tour guide told us how to get there and it sounded like it was about 5 minutes away. So we started off still not having gotten lunch because we figured it would be pretty quick and there would be something to eat in the town along the way. Once again we were wrong... and hungry. The road there was RIDICULOUS. It weaved back and forth over and over and over again. It was beautiful out the windows, but the dirt road didn't have straight aways lasting more than 20 meters. At least we weren't driving.
We arrived at the falls, they were cool but not worth it, then we went back to the hostel. We were talking to some people who had just come from the other side of the road and they told us of a place where you could surf with whales. It sounded tight, so we added it to our agenda for the upcomming couple of days.
We awoke the next morning and headed out to the 12 apostels... continued in part 2.
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